Too bad we couldn’t hedge our gas prices earlier. If we could have, I know my wife and I would have bought $2000 worth of gas in January. We knew prices were gonna continue to rise then, but we didn’t have a way to do it. I heard some states have ways to do it, maybe California should look into it.

As much as I like Gold and Silver as investments, knowing what outside forces have an affect on the price but are not holding to the trend greatly concerns me. Hopefully it just means that someone out there (with a lot of money) is buying while the going is good (meaning that the prices are still cheap) and that’s causing the increase. I like seeing Gold prices increase, but only because I have most of my investment in it. I don’t like what drives the prices of Gold though, because it means that our nations dollar is weakening and so is our economy overall.

In the end, all any of us can do is take advantage of what we hope is another cycle for any investment that might be at t low point. GREAT real estate deals are all over the place now. Learn to negotiate and buy property at great prices, and you’ll be able to stay ahead of the economic problems most Americans are facing today.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and take time to learn about what’s going on around you!

Gas prices will still continue to rise at least for the next few days, if not weeks. I gotta think that there has to be better ways for Americans to beat this problem. Gas is so high right now that even food is being used to create fuels and doing a double whammy on all of us with regards to food prices.

I saw that Gold and Silver prices are also once again taking off this week. Our government broadcasted a shortage on gas supplies and President Bush’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia to try to bring the price of oil down was unsuccessful. It at least shows that he is trying to address the issue, but most analyst knew it wouldn’t help. The fact of the matter is that we need address our dying dollar. That is the core problem to everything we experience. Address the dollar issue, our other problems will fix themselves. It may take a few years for the ship to turn, but we need to start the turn.

The same goes with our lives. If we are living paycheck to paycheck, we need to start a turn to head in a different direction. It may take a bit for the affects to be seen, but know it will be well worth it. I think of it like dieting. It takes a lot of suffering in the beginning, but working the plan will help to get you back on track and the result will be well worth it.

A new report today says that wholesale inflation rose very slowly, slower than expect. (yeah right) The government tweaked the numbers so bad, it wasn’t even worth really publishing.

Gold is back on the rise, but oil will soon peak and interest rates will have to go back up. This means that Gold may not maintain the strong price rise, but I am thinking it won’t go much lower all in all and a slow “continuous” rise is probable for the long term.

Inflation will be the biggest enemy of everyone’s wallet. (beside the cooling cost to beat the heat) BUT all in all, there is always a golden shining light at the end of the tunnel. Real estate prices continue to plummet, and this gives many opportunities for those who know how to play it.

Read up on things that gained a lot of popularity during depressions or recessions, and there is a lot of opportunity to get ahead. Think about it….

So while here in Phoenix, I’ve been asking the locals (clients that I met) about the economy here and what they thought of the real estate market. Most said it’s a great time to move out here if I was looking to buy a house because foreclosures are rampant here like everywhere else and deals are easily found. Spoke to one long time local who told me of very interesting zoning laws out here regarding having office space that could double as a residential house. These properties are usually corner lots and must have adequate parking (I think he said 8 stalls) and must follow other specific rules that are pretty stringent but understandable. Those who live here love it, and don’t really feel the heat much. (I felt it!) I can’t imagine what it must be like in the middle of summer.

One other interesting thing. As I met with clients out here, I found a strong willingness for many people to give referrals for others who might like our services, even if they were competitors. Also, everyone seemed to know each other, like this was a small town of 200 people. With everyone so willing to share knowledge, it helps everyone move ahead and have a great outlook to their. I haven’t seen it anywhere else yet, but it should definitely be practiced by more industries.

I spoke to a women looking for some advice on her finances. She owns a nice place in France that she wants to fix and rent out. There is no mortgage on it, but the bathroom is unusable and she has no funds to fix it. I asked if she was willing to sell it now while the real estate market has not totally crashed yet, and she said she wants to keep it because it is so beautiful even though it’s unusable. I offered her a solution that would take some time, but help to secure her future.

1. sell the France condo (she might get $200,000 for it), then do either #2 or #3 below
2. take that money and find an apartment building to buy, use the $200k as a down-payment or closing cost OR
3. take the money and buy a few condos at $25,000 to $30,000 a piece and pay it all in cash so there would be no mortgages. (believe it or not, there are a lot of these places in the midwest)
4. She could also rent her house here and use the income to sustain herself in France as she fixes up the place. If the rent gives her enough income, she could sustain herself for a long time. (the weak dollar is a concern on running the actual number that she would have to consider)

Investing in real estate has its risks, I am well aware of that. I’ve made my mistakes and had my homeruns. The key is knowing who to get help from. Success is usually done when good team is put together. Spend the time to find good professional help, and your risk goes dramatically down, and success rate up. I think referrals work best in finding good team members, but so does asking a lot of questions to see how they answer. A combination of getting a referral and interviewing them is even better.

Don’t forget to educate yourself as much as possible. The more you know personally, the better you’ll be able to see “red flags” in a deal. The future is yours to make and mold, you can’t do it by praying God drops everything in your lap.

If you would like to add this to your site or blog, here is the code.

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I think gold will hit $1200 before the end of this year and $1500 by then end of 2009. My numbers may be more agressive than his, but I also think we could both be way off the mark and gold could be at $3000 by his due time. For me, I just think there are too many variables pushing Gold to skyrocket. Also, we haven’t seen the “mania” cycle yet where the masses go out and make silly purchases at the top of the market. The mania this time around could be outrageously ridiculous compared to the last time as baby boomers will scramble to protect their assets.

Today’s headlines are all about the unemployment report. Yesterday I mentioned that I felt it was a no brainer that the unemployment numbers would be increasing, but even I didn’t think it would hit as high as 80,000 new claims for March. I am afraid to think what next months numbers will be when the months starts with 5700+ employees losing their jobs to 2 airlines (Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines)going bankrupt. More and more companies are looking to do mergers lately to protect themselves from total collapse, and this causes layoffs as well. How bad can this get? I guess we can only wait and see. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Build a financial foundation for yourself as soon as possible!

Something to be expected today is that Gold and Silver is taking a dive along with other commodities. This is because money is running to an illusion of a safer stock market. Does anyone see the other news out today?

• UBS writes off $19 BILLION
• Home building tumbles for the 24th straight month
• Deutsche Bank expects a $4BILLION subprime hit
• Ford Sales sink – “The month was expected to be one of the worst for automakers since 2005 because of consumers’ worries about the economy”

Our Dollar raised against the Euro today with word of 2 leading European banks having more issues with the subprime mess. If you didn’t know this, the European real estate market beat the US real estate market during the boom. Their crash is prepping to be harder than ours. Gold and silver drop when the Dollar Gains over the Euro. The problem is that the Euro got weaker because of US banking issues.

What can I say. The gains in today’s market do not make sense to me. I have a bad feeling this bounce up will only create an accelerated fall in the next few weeks. Gold and Silver are starting to really form strong supports for themselves. One expert was hoping to see it drop this low again to $870 an ounce. He speculated that if this happened, a solid support could be created that will prevent Gold from ever going lower.